The Swedish Air Force identified multiple Tu-22M3 bombers operating with Sukhoi fighter escorts over the Baltic Sea on Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025. At least one bomber carried a single Kh-22/32 anti-ship missile.
In a sortie coordinated with the NATO Baltic Air Policing effort, the Swedish Air Force launched its Saab Gripen fighters to identify and shadow the group of Russian aircraft as they passed near to NATO airspace. Italian Eurofighter aircraft, currently assigned to the Baltic Air Policing mission, were also launched and escorted the bombers.
🇸🇪 Swedish QRA identified 🇷🇺 Tu-22 Bombers escorted by Su-35 fighter jets over the Baltic Sea yesterday. Mission carried out in close cooperation with Baltic Air Policing. #NATOAirPolicing pic.twitter.com/Oe0H11FzDl
— Flygvapnet (@flygvapnet) November 28, 2025
Departing from Olenya Air Base on the Kola peninsula in the far northwest of Russia, the bomber group travelled south towards St Petersburg before transiting the narrow air corridor over the sea between Finland and Estonia. Then, turning south again, the group passed between the Swedish island Gotland and Latvia, on a course towards the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Just before reaching the friendly territory the group reversed course and returned the way they came. In total, Russian sources say the training mission lasted over five hours.
The Russian flight appears to have been arranged similarly to a previous exercise in December 2024, also featuring aircraft carrying external missile payloads. In this new case, it is unclear whether the missile pictured is a live weapon or an inert training round. The visibly shorter nosecone section suggests the missile is the newer Kh-32 variant, which improved on the Kh-22 with a new engine and greater range. Tu-22M bombers were designed in the 1960s with maritime strike firmly in mind, able to carry up to three Kh-22/32 missiles simultaneously – one on each wing, and a third in a semi-recessed centre fuselage position.
Worth noting that it could also be a captive-carry training variant of the Kh-32. The training variant of the older Kh-22M/N typically has a black band around the warhead section or other markings that denote it as such. I don’t know if this is also the case with the training…
— Guy Plopsky (@GuyPlopsky) November 27, 2025
16 Tu-22M3s were forward deployed to Olenya in recent days from Belaya, deep in southeastern Siberia.
This week, Russia moved around 16 Tu-22M3 bombers from Siberia to Olenja airbase on the Kola Peninsula. The airbase is located around 220 kilometers from the city center of Kirkenes. https://t.co/9QZ70DGykP pic.twitter.com/0FouLH7m2L
— Selshevneren (@selshevneren) November 26, 2025
In an official release, the Russian Ministry of Defense acknowledged their aircraft’s intercept by NATO forces, and maintained that their flight was conducted with “strict compliance” to international airspace rules. It also confirmed that the bombers were escorted by Sukhoi Su-27 and Su-35S fighter aircraft. This press release was essentially identical to previous ones released for similar flights in the past. Unlike the widely-reported incursion into Estonian airspace by MiG-31 Foxhound interceptor/strike aircraft, no allegation has been made of any breach of sovereign airspace.
Video footage released by Russia shows the bombers’ departure – with identifying marks obscured – as well as the Gripen and Typhoon fighters scrambled by NATO to shadow them during the mission.
Two Tu-22M3 long-range supersonic missile carrier bombers (with the Kh-22/32 anti-ship missile) escorted by Su-35S and Su-27 fighters performed a scheduled flight over the Baltic Sea.
The duration of the flight was more than five hours.
📹MoD RF (Nov. 27)https://t.co/XBcQt1yMJ0 pic.twitter.com/F2YyPfO7sV— Massimo Frantarelli (@MrFrantarelli) November 27, 2025
Only days ago, a unique Tupolev Tu-134UB-L, or Tu-134A-4, was spotted and shadowed by NATO fighters over the Baltic. Escorted by two Su-30SM fighters, this variant of the Tu-134 airliner has been used as a crew trainer for the Tu-22M3 as well as the larger Tu-160 ‘Blackjack’. It has now reportedly also taken on a VIP transport role.
These intercepts have likely been coordinated with the assistance of NATO’s new Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) in Norway, which has been added alongside two existing CAOCs to oversee air defence across Scandinavia and the High North. Aircraft assigned to the Baltic Air Policing mission have faced a high operational tempo, in some cases conducting two intercepts over the course of a single flight. On rarer occasions, three separate intercept taskings have been assigned to aircraft during flight.
Sweden and Finland’s accession into NATO has made the Baltic – aside from Russian presence – a universally NATO bordered sea. Though they were already allies, with increasing cooperation with NATO forces, full integration into NATO’s command structure is sure to simplify the air defence situation in the region. Swedish Gripens and Finnish F/A-18 Hornets have already completed rotations through NATO’s air policing deployments, while allied forces – including U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress bombers – have made use of new training opportunities while celebrating the strengthened alliance.
